Good Story Fund: USAID Media Support in Bosnia and Herzegovina (MEA)

The goal of Internews’ activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina through USAID Media Engagement Activity (MEA) is to strengthen the information space in BiH. The purpose of this activity is to increase the availability of credible and professional information to a large population in BiH, particularly to audiences with traditionally limited access to it. Internews’ activities are funded by an award from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) passed through by Family Health International (FHI360).

USAID’s MEA aims to stimulate and support production of quality content that will help media in Bosnia and Herzegovina expand their audiences, inform them, and build trust with the public while reporting on public interest issues in innovative way. To this end, they are seeking applications for the fifth cycle of the Good Story Fund (GSF).

What is the Good Story Fund? 

• The Good Story Fund is a funding opportunity open to journalists, media, activists, civil society organizations and individual content creators.
• The Fund supports the production of content in various formats, and projects that contain certain innovative elements, strive to bring communities closer together, increase the quality of content, encourage cooperation between sectors and different media, and have the potential to inspire others to follow their example are given priority. Special attention is paid to project ideas that help increase the variety of content offered in a certain market or reach a part of the audience that is neglected or whose authentic experiences are insufficiently represented in media content. This call is issued twice a year for the duration of the five-year MEA project launched in 2022, and priorities will emerge from the current context.

Funding Information

• The Good Story Fund is open to applications from individuals (grant up to $2,950) and media organizations (up to a maximum of $15,000).

What are “Good Stories”?

• A “good story” does not mean only that the stories are interesting to read, listen to and watch. Whether it’s an investigative story, a documentary, interactive content or a podcast series, a good story should also:
  • Address important social issues and include marginalized and/or less informed parts of the audience in the dialogue;
  • Encourage audiences to brainstorm potential solutions and engage in problem solving in ways that bring communities together;
  • Explore the potential for cooperation between the media, journalists, civil society organizations and other potential partners;
  • Include elements of innovation and experimentation with formats and/or distribution channels;
  • And/or promote inclusiveness and diversity of experiences and voices offered in media content.
• The focus of the fifth cycle of the Good Story Fund is to support the production of content on topics of importance to local communities, in the context of the upcoming local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will be held in October 2024. Such content can deal with the electoral process or issues of interest to life. in the local community that are – fully or partially – under the jurisdiction of local levels of government, such as traffic infrastructure, urban planning, environmental protection, encouragement for the development of entrepreneurship and tourism, social policy, support for young people, women, minority groups, vulnerable categories and activists, education, culture, cooperation with other local communities, corruption, etc.
• Content can be produced in various journalistic formats, and proposals can include textual, audio or visual content (or their combination), elements of graphic data presentation, interactive elements, multimedia formats, etc.

Eligibility Criteria

• Open to: Locally registered media outlets and individual content producers from Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Proposals that are the result of local or regional media production or collaboration between two or more media or two content creators at the local or regional level are especially welcome.

For more information, visit Balkansmedia.